Green tea with lemon is a comforting beverage that you can take at any time of the day. It is highly nutritious and has many potential health benefits. At the same time, green tea is an easy-to-prepare beverage that gets flavorful and delicious after adding lemon.
Over the years, green tea has become synonymous with improved and better health. Packed with antioxidants and flavonoids, it is a beverage that can be enjoyed at any time of the day. Adding lemon makes it a powerhouse of immunity-boosting drink that helps to have better health.
How to Prepare Green Tea with Lemon?
Making green tea with lemon is an easy process. Here are the steps involved-
- Boil one cup of water and let it cool for 1-2 minutes.
- Pour into a cup and add a green tea bag.
- Leave it for 2 minutes.
- Now, add some fresh lemon juice.
If needed, you can elevate the flavor by adding ingredients like honey, cinnamon, ginger, mint etc.
Best Time to Drink Green Tea with Lemon
Though green tea with lemon can be taken at any time of the day, taking it at certain times helps to boost metabolism and enjoy added advantages.
Here are the best time and ways to drink green tea with lemon-
- Drinking it after breakfast prevents dehydration.
- Taking green tea with lemon one hour before and after a meal prevents fat absorption.
- If you take it half an hour before bedtime, it helps to fight weight loss.
- Taking this beverage half an hour before exercise helps to burn fat.
Benefits of Green Tea with Lemon
Green tea with lemon is a wonderful beverage, offering many health advantages. Green tea is abundantly rich in antioxidants like chlorogenic acid, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), quercetin, and theogallin (1).
At the same time, lemons are good sources of antioxidants ascorbic acid, hesperidin, naringin, and ferulic acid. (2)
Here are the proven benefits of green tea with lemon-
1. Keeps Major Diseases at Bay
Antioxidants help protect against inflammations and cell damage due to oxidation. Green tea and lemon are rich in antioxidants and hence an excellent choice to guard against chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
2. Promotes Weight Loss
Green tea with lemon can aid in weight loss and belly reduction as it boosts the fat-burning process in the body. Studies have proved that drinking it helps in body fat reduction and thus decrease in body weight.
Adding lemon to the green tea boosts the latter’s weight-loss benefits with catechins. The caffeine of green tea makes the body exert more energy, thereby promoting weight loss (3).
3. Protection Against Diabetes
Green tea can help to improve blood sugar level as it may reduce inflammation and increase body’s ability to use insulin effectively.
4. Enhancing Heart Health
Both green tea and lemons come with multiple benefits for heart health. Citrus flavonoids, found abundantly in lemon, may suppress inflammations, support healthy cholesterol levels, and improve the function of the blood vessels.
People who consume lemons daily and walk regularly have reported low blood pressure levels. Also, several risk factors for heart diseases tremendously decrease the consumption of green tea with lemons.
5. Supports Brain Health
Green tea with lemon offers many potential benefits for brain health. It lowers the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment. It also reduces the metabolism of certain compounds that are involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Also, presence of citrus in green tea may decrease inflammation, protect brain function, and prevent plaque buildup in the brain (4).
6. Boosts immunity
Lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C and play a major role in enhancing immunity by decreasing inflammation and increasing the function of immune cells.
Green tea with lemons may help to treat and prevent many respiratory and systemic infections as well. Compounds like ECGC found in green tea can improve body immunity and protect against autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (5).
7. Enhances Energy Levels in the Body
Green tea is a natural source of caffeine that acts as a central nervous system stimulant to enhance energy level. It also increases alertness, increases endurance, may improve athletic performance, decreases fatigue and improves cognitive and physical functioning.
As green tea has caffeine in lesser amounts than coffee or other energy drinks, it is an excellent option for those sensitive to high caffeine doses.
8. Prevent Kidney Stones
Drinking green tea with lemons can help to prevent kidney stone formation (6). The citric acid in lemons removes kidney stones by increasing urine volume and binding to calcium oxalate. This helps to avoid the accumulation of crystals that form kidney stones.
9. Protection Against Cancer
Both green tea and lemons have potent cancer-fighting properties (7). Eating citrus items leads to lower risks of several types of cancer like lung, stomach, oesophageal, and breast cancers. Green tea may help to reduce the risk of bladder, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer cells.
10. Keeps Hydrated
Green tea with lemon keeps one adequately hydrated for a long time. Hydration is a requirement for maintaining a proper, healthy lifestyle. Maintaining healthy skin, digestive health, and proper organ functioning is very important for overall well-being.
11. Toxin Removal
Green tea with lemon cleanses the organs like kidneys and liver. It enhances bile production in the liver, which makes digestion easier. Even a damaged liver can improve by drinking a cup of green tea regularly. Vitamin C in the lemon cleanses the intestine and blood vessels and helps to absorb more nutrients.
Conclusion
Green tea with lemon is an easy-to-make beverage using simple ingredients that are readily available at home. It offers several health benefits, including the prevention of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and several other chronic ailments.
This health-boosting beverage is often considered as the second most ideal option for hydration after water. It helps to decrease stress by increasing relaxation and concentration levels. Knowing all the benefits would definitely tempt you to add to your daily routine.
Feature Image Source – freepik
References
- National Library Of Medicine – A Review of the Role of Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) in Antiphotoaging, Stress Resistance, Neuroprotection, and Autophagy
- National Library Of Medicine – Citrus limon (Lemon) Phenomenon—A Review of the Chemistry, Pharmacological Properties, Applications in the Modern Pharmaceutical, Food, and Cosmetics Industries, and Biotechnological Studies
- National Library Of Medicine – Therapeutic effect of high-dose green tea extract on weight reduction: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial
- National Library Of Medicine – Associations of Green Tea Consumption and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology in Cognitively Intact Older Adults: The CABLE Study
- National Library Of Medicine – Vitamin C and Immune Function
- Aua Journals – Preventive Effects of Green Tea on Renal Stone Formation and the Role of Oxidative Stress in Nephrolithiasis
- National Library Of Medicine – Daily Consumption of Lemon and Ginger Herbal Infusion Caused Tumor Regression and Activation of the Immune System in a Mouse Model of Breast Cancer
